“ISIS leader Baghdadi alive”- Kurdish Counter terrorism official

Sulaimania: A top Kurdish counter-terrorism official on Monday said he was 99 percent sure that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi was alive and located in South of the Syrian city of Raqqa.

“Baghdadi is definitely alive. He is not dead. We have information that he is alive. We believe 99 percent he is alive,” Lahur Talabany told Reuters in an interview.

“Don’t forget his roots go back to al-Qaeda days in Iraq. He was hiding from security services. He knows what he is doing.”

To be noted, Iraqi security forces have ended three years of Islamic State rule in the Iraqi city of Mosul, and the group is under growing pressure in Raqqa – both strongholds in the militants’ crumbling self-proclaimed caliphate.

“Islamic State was shifting tactics despite low morale and it would take three or four years to eliminate the group,” said Talabany.

After defeat, Islamic State would wage an insurgency and resemble al-Qaeda on “steroids”, he said.

The future leaders of Islamic State were expected to be intelligence officers who served under former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.